1995 PMI InternationalProject of the Year

The Benfield Column Repair Project

Ian Boggon, PMP, General Manager, INTENS SA
PM Network, February 1996, pp. 25 -30

A t 12:30 P.M. on Tuesday, March 8, 1994, a fire broke out in the carbon-
ate regeneration column in the Benfield Unit of the Gas Circuit at Sasol
Three, one of the factories of Sasol, a leading South African coal, chemical,
and crude-oil company. The column, which was open for repairs and main-
tenance during the annual factory shutdown, is used to process hydrogen. It
is one crucial component in a long chain of equipment that converts coal to
oil and chemicals. Without it, a large section of the factory could not func-
tion, resulting in a considerable loss of income.
A damage investigation revealed that buckling in the shell of the column
had caused it to bend in the middle to such an extent that the top of the
steam chimney was 500 rnm (20 inches) off-center, making the 70 m (231
feet) column resemble the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Decision analysis revealed that, to get the plant safely back online in the
shortest possible time, the damaged portion of the shell would have to be
 The plrojed will be schedule driven, not cost drbven.

- There is NO flo; d on this project.

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r l d r l LO rt.uutt. xheduled times. not
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The plroject will be a team effort witk

assist1ed by Sasdiens and CBI.
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ty wirt not be comprc)misedat a reject.

~icaldecisic)ns will be authorized ~dDr. J.H.
ss decisions will be at~thorizedt d Dr. J.H. '
lrces will not be considered as a
nitments M{ill be adhc?redto.
nunication will be coi~tinuousa1: all levels.
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the unit.

cut out and replaced. The main component of the project, therefore, was to
strip out the original shell, fabricate a new section, reinstall the column, and
re-commission the unit.
And all this was to be accomplished in forty-seven days.
The project team. Sastech, a subsidiary of the Sasol Group of Compa-
nies, was requested to undertake the repair at 8:00 A.M. on Thursday, March
10. The Sastech project team consisted of a project manager, a senior project
engineer, a cost engineer, and a planner. The total team, however, had twenty-
seven members: four process engineers, six mechanical engineers, a pressure
vessel specialist, a metallurgist, a welding engineer, a pipe stress engineer, a
piping draftsman, a mechanical draftsman, a structural engineer, a structural
draftsman, three quality assurance inspectors, a commercial contract officer,
and a commercial procurement officer. Members were drawn from Sastech,
Sasol Three, Sasdiens, Chicago Bridge and Iron Works (the original fabricators
of the column), and from suppliers of the equipment and material.
CBI was contracted to remove, fabricate, and replace the vessel, with
Sasdiens providing the rigging, piping, electrical, and associated work. Some
of the CBI engineers involved when Sasol Three was built fourteen years ago
now worked on the repair. The cutting up and removal of the damaged sec-
tions of the column was a combined effort between CBI and Sasdiens.
Within fifteen minutes of receiving the contract, CBI had contacted em-
ployees from six sites in the United States, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and South
Africa and were faxing drawings from their head office, placing provisional
orders for material, completing the rigging study, and arrangmg delivery of
the massive spreader beam to be used to lift off and replace the damaged and
new sections. This speed of response set the standard for everyone involved.
The column was handed back to production on Sunday, April 3, at 12:30
PM., certified as "ready for comrnissionmg." The project completion certificate
was signed on Friday, April 8, at 4:30 P.M.-fifteen days ahead of schedule.
Special management methods. Conventional project management tech-
niques were not sufficient to ensure that the .work was carried out in the
shortest possible time. Two areas were identified as requiring special atten-
tion: innovation and creativity, and enthusiasm and commitment. Because
 Project Management Casebook

Contiractors en
Activ ities in tht
Peop le involvec
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the time frame was short, any time saved on individual tasks would have a
direct effect on the overall project duration.
But because the majority of the workforce had been involved in the main-
tenance shutdown when the fire started, they were locked into a mindset that
the schedule governs the duration of each task and a successful task is per-
ceived as one that is completed "on time." On the first day of the repair pro-
ject, two people were overheard saying that they had "plenty of time" to finish
a particular task. It was explained to them that, for this project, they would be
given credit for work finished ahead of schedule rather than on schedule.
This story was recounted at the next meeting, and supervisors were
asked to pass the message on to their teams. The result was incredible. Peo-
ple came up with ideas for saving even five minutes-unheard of under nor-
mal circumstances. Such was the enthusiasm created in the workforce that
this became the dominant culture. On the third day, when a new supervisor
joining the team said that he would start first thing in the morning, there
was an immediate uproar, with everyone in the meeting shouting that he
should begin immediately!
It was agreed at the beginning of the project that to get the commitment
of everyone involved, they had to know what was going on at all times. This
was achieved in a number of ways.
A list of ground rules, developed in conjunction with the client's senior
management team, was distributed to everyone on the project. Any decision,
even if unconventional, could be accepted if it complied with these rules. For
example, the welding foreman hired welders from a rival company rather
than delay completion of a task because the ground rule stated that re-
sources could not be considered as a limitation.
A board was put up outside the command center caravan and updated
twice daily. When people performed well, their names were posted there.
This was a real morale booster. The project team was located on-site and
was present before the night shift finished in the morning and after it start-
ed at night. Visits were frequently made during the night, removing the feel-
ing of isolation normally associated with this shift. The project team also
made a commitment to visit every crew at least twice a day to give feedback
Planning

and encouragement. Frequent visits were also made to off-site supervisors.

Each member of the project team had a pager and the crews were encouraged
to make contact at any time of the day or night, which helped to speed up
the decision-making process.
From the first meeting, we encouraged innovation and creativity. Even sil-
ly ideas were examined in case they produced a worthwhile solution. This con-
tinuous push for innovative ideas produced numerous time-savmg solutions.
Each person was encouraged to work for the benefit of the project as a
whole and not for his or her own interest. The person responsible for a crit-
ical path activity would get help voluntarily from all other members in the
team because he or she understood that to shorten the critical path would
also shorten the total project. This concept was so successful that at one
stage a fistfight nearly broke out because three different artisans wanted to
work on one particular section of scaffold at the same time, such was their
enthusiasm for the job.
A policy of 'Accept It ... Or Change It ... But Never Complain About It"
kept meetings positive. In addition to the shift change meetings, communi-
cation sessions were convened twice a day when the activities of the next
two days were discussed in minute detail.
This positive spirit created a dedicated project team that had many suc-
cesses leading up to the overall success. Over one million Rands ($3.6 mil-
lion) worth of material and equipment was ordered and not one single item
was late. Each piece of piping fitted correctly the first time-and there were
many hundreds of meters installed. The managing director of one company
opened up his factory over the Easter weekend to supply urgently required
material. The production department, swept up in the spirit of the project,
applied the same principles to re-commissioning activities and slashed the
previous record for bringing the plant safely back online. The human factor
was what made the project a success.

The objective of the project was clear from the beginning: Bring the plant
back online in the shortest possible time. The first step was to determine
the exact scope of the repair. We had to determine if it was an option to sim-
ply do nothing. A communication link was set up between CBI and the
Sastech process engineers, which involved working very long hours because
of the ten-hour time difference between South Africa and the United States.
Their decision analysis revealed that the optimum solution was to remove
the damaged shell sections.
While they were deliberating, other scope functions were already run-
ning in parallel. A meeting was convened to identlfy that work which could
be performed irrespective of the type of repair selected. Items that fell into
this category included removing the damaged packing material, insulation,
and cladding, which would have to be changed even if the decision was to do
nothing. Tasks that could not wait for a formal decision before starting with-
out affecting their overall duration, and therefore the duration of the project,
also had to be identified.
Scope statement. The brief scope statement issued initially simply stat-
ed that part of the Benfield Unit was offline due to fire damage and that it
 Project Management Casebook

must be repaired as soon as possible. Development of the scope statement

from this single sentence to the final format was carried out in conjunction
with the development of the work breakdown structure. In fact, the work
breakdown structure formed the basis of the scope, quality, schedule, and
cost control documents.
To reduce bureaucracy, only two aspects required management approval:
technical and process decisions used to determine whether to repair the col-
umn or leave it in its damaged condition. The baseline plan therefore lay in
the hands of the project team. There were no fundamental changes to the
baseline plan throughout the project life-cycle apart from the fact that dura-
tions were reduced and the project was completed ahead of schedule.
Project plan and control system. Once the optimum course of action
was decided upon, planning started in earnest. The first step was to develop
a work breakdown structure. This was completed at open meetings with rep-
resentatives from each interested party present. A brainstorming process was
used, with each topic identified on a Post-it note and attached to a huge
white board. Delegates were encouraged to shout out tasks as they came to
mind. The meeting was adjourned once the ideas dried up. A second meet-
ing was convened to fine-tune and accept the WBS. The WBS determined
what had to be done and when it had to take place, as well as the logic asso-
ciated with each task.
Everyone was aware from the start that a higher premium would be
placed on team performance than on individual performance. That this con-
cept was clearly understood was demonstrated during feedback sessions. As
soon as a task was reported as being in trouble or not being completed ahead
of schedule, the rest of those present immediately offered to help. This re-
moved the fear of reporting negative feedback and raised the morale of the
whole team.
On completion of the project, a series of post-project analysis meetings
were convened with the major players. Although we thought we had fast-
tracked this project to the last second, there were a number of problems
which, if recognized, would have saved time on the critical path. For in-
stance, we failed to consider religious faith when we drew up the schedule. A
number of the welders and boilermakers employed on the fabrication of the
new shell sections were Muslims whose religious festival of Ramadan fell
right in the middle of the most critical portion of their work. By the time we
realized the problem, it was too late to employ welders with the same track
record of zero defects from other ethnic groups. We updated the planning
checklist to include this topic in case the same situation arises in the future.

Quality was one of the ground rules of the project. Everyone employed on the
project had previously worked within the Sasol quality system and was fa-
miliar with Sasol's forms and procedures. One aspect that emphasized how
far team building had come was the cooperation between QC personnel and
the artisans. Not once did the foreman or supervisor have to call out the QC
people to do their work; they were ready and waiting for the artisan to finish
each task. The artisans didn't rush off to the tea hut the minute their work
was complete; they stayed behind and helped the inspectors by preparing and
Planning

cleaning the material to be inspected. This was reciprocated by the inspectors

who dropped their "That's failed ... fix it!" attitude and worked together with
the artisan to identlfy problems and rectlfy them.
From a managerial point of view, normal quality-related steps were fol-
lowed for each aspect of the project. The complete quality dossier for the pro-
ject was signed off and filed before the close-out certificate was signed.

From the beginning it was clear that the project would be schedule-driven.
There would be no constraints as far as resources were concerned and no
"float" would be published. Tasks identified during the development of the
WBS were gven to the teams responsible for carrying out the work and they
were asked to attach durations to them. This gave the teams ownership of
the schedule; and who better to develop accurate durations than the people
with the relevant experience?
In the initial stages a two-day look-ahead window was used, which al-
lowed immediate tasks to continue while future tasks were being developed.
Meetings were held twice a day in the initial stages as detail was developed
and input into the program. Because of its user-friendliness, Microsoft Project
for Windows was used as the scheduling tool at the beginning of the project.
The schedule was also used to identlfy resources with the potential to af-
fect critical task durations. Resource utilization was continuously examined
to make sure that the labor and equipment to perform each task in the short-
est possible time was available. If a task had work for ten welders but only
eight welding machines were available, two additional welding machines
would be located, plus a standby. The standby philosophy also applied to labor.

Cosr MANAGEMENT
Project cost management principles employed on this job paid a handsome
dividend. The initial budget was R23,300,000 ($85,278,000)and the final
job cost was R17,414,945 ($63,738,698):a massive savings of 25.26 percent
of the total project cost.
A cost control base was developed based on the existing Sastech system
and established estimating and forecasting methods. Regular feedback was giv-
en to each cost center. A one-page cost report was developed and presented to
management on a regular basis.
Costs were also reduced by uslng techniques like value analysis. One exam-
ple of cost reduction due to value analysis was the saving of hundreds of meters
of scaffolding required to weld the connecting piping to the column. The regula-
tions state that you can either put men or equipment into a man-rider basket
hung from a crane; you cannot have both. This regulation was challenged and a
man-rider was developed specifically to carry men and equipment. Drawings
were taken to the responsible government minister in Pretoria, who accepted
the proposal. A prototypewas fabricated on-site. It passed the required tests with
flying colors and was immediately put into service. From conception of the idea
to the approved piece of equipment being used on-site took only four days.
 Project Management Casebook

Risk management ranged from ad hoc discussions to formal Potential Devi-

ation Analysis (PDA)studies. Some of the results of these studies included
arranging to receive weather reports from two different weather stations
twice daily, extending every scaffold to make it possible to drape tarpaulins
over the tower in the event of rain, the extensive use of standby equipment
and materials, extensive servicing of equipment in the early stages of the
project, canceling Easter holidays for key personnel (not a slngle person ob-
jected to this measure), and having crane maintenance personnel perma-
nently on-site during lifting operations. Formal PDA sessions were convened
for operations such as the removal and replacement of the shell sections.
These sessions were attended by representativesfrom the fire brigade, insur-
ance companies, production, maintenance, loss control, projects, design,
Sasol management, and everyone involved in the operation.
In order to minimize risk associated with design, all design information
was verified by actual site measurement before being finalized. The small in-
crease in time paid dividends in the fact that all designs fitted the first time,
reducing rework to zero.

For a team to function at its peak, each member must devote all his or her
energy to the task at hand. If they are worried about things like working con-
ditions and transport arrangements, they will not be able to devote all their
efforts to the project. Thus, a simple plan, centered around communication
and considering the "soft" issues of each team member, maximized the mo-
tivation of the workforce.
The huge hierarchical gap between team members at some of the meet-
ings had to be recognized. On some occasions, participants ranged from the
factory manager to site laborers, and lower-level team members tended not
to contribute in such senior company, which stifled valuable input. There-
fore, meeting attendees were very carefully selected.
One member of the project team was appointed to give feedback to man-
agement and one member of the management team was appointed to receive
it. This reduced the risk of confusing or misleading information being prop-
agated up the management ladder. Secondary information was always
cleared with the contact person before it was accepted, eliminating rumors
and exaggerations.
The "soft" issues of hourly-paid team members involved ensuring that
transport was provided, that contractors' accommodations were acceptable,
that lunch packs were provided for the entire project team every day, and
that overtime hours were strictly controlled. This policy of "looking after the
people and letting the people look after the job" really worked. One example:
A welder flown in from the United States was accommodated in a well-ap-
pointed apartment. Expecting him to be more than satisfied, we were
amazed to discover that he was not happy with his situation. He was on
night shift and the apartment block was also home to a large number of
noisy small children. The welder got virtually no sleep. He was moved to the
more Spartan but quieter Sasol single quarters and his productivity shot up
the next day.
Planning

Only two main contracts were entered into, one for the repair of the pressure
envelope of the column and the second for all the other ancillary work such
as removing and replacing piping, painting, scaffolding, rigging, and cranage.
Therefore, Sastech would have to trust contractors to work on a verbal in-
struction to proceed, followed in due course by a conventional written con-
tract. There simply was not enough time to work any other way. All the
steps used in conventional procurement and contract management were fol-
lowed, but on an informal basis and in a very short time frame.
CBI, the fabricator and installer of the original column, was asked to
provide a target price within three days and to follow this up within a further
ten days with a fixed price. Sasdiens was selected for the remainder of the
work because it was on-site, knew the Sasol systems, and was part of the
Sasol organization. Its contract was on a rates basis with a governing target
price.
In addition, ten smaller contractors were involved. We were honest with
all of them, explaining the situation and asking them to proceed without of-
ficial paperwork in cases where it could not be generated timely. Though
risky, t h s paid off. The level of trust in Sastech was such that we were invit-
ed to attend the internal meetings of some of the contractors.
On the procurement side, one buyer was selected to handle all purchase
orders. By using one person rather than a department we had accurate feed-
back when and where we needed it. The risk associated was that if anything
happened to the buyer, we would lose continuity. We reduced this risk by ask-
ing the buyer to keep a handwritten diary of events on his desk at all times.
The approach adopted with suppliers was to go in aggressively to ensure
that we were not taken advantage of in our vulnerable situation. Once we
came to an agreement, we dropped the adversarial attitude. By including
suppliers in the team, we reaped tremendous benefits. A number of suppliers
worked at night, during weekends, and even during holidays.

Most of the communications management techniques employed on this pro-

ject are described elsewhere in this article-which is as it should be, since
communication is at the heart of successful management of risk, scope, cost,
and so on. Communications management, the golden thread that ran
through the project, was the one aspect that received the greatest attention;
yet, it was also the one where most improvements were identified during the
post-project evaluation.
A number of important people were left out of the communications list
altogether at the beginning. One example was the quality inspector from the
supply depot. When the first consignment of material was requested, we dis-
covered that the inspector had gone home without clearing the goods we ur-
gently required. We phoned him and apologized for not keeping him in-
formed about the repair and he was on-site within ten minutes, eager to do
his part. This incident prompted a critical look at the communication list,
which revealed a surprisingly high number of "missing" people. A checklist
was developed to ensure that the problem will not reoccur on future projects.
 ProjectManagement Casebook

The communication channels covered contractors and vendors, subor-

dinates, peers, and management, with frequency and type of communica-
tion structured to suit each recipient. At its request, feedback to manage-
ment was mostly verbal and restricted to once per day so that we were not
burdened with unnecessary paperwork. The only written reports given to
management were the cost report and the schedule. One senior manager
passed on progress information to interested parties outside the Sasol orga-
nization and to the head office. This ensured that there was only one
"horse's mouth."
Meeting notes that required follow-up were typed into a computer pro-
gram designed specifically for expediting action items. Each person with fol-
low-up actions informed the meeting secretary on completion of the task so
that the program could be updated. This meant that meetings could be re-
stricted to exception items, which saved precious minutes each day. At meet-
ings a PC screen was projected on the wall of the conference room for every-
one to read. Minutes were printed at the end of each meeting. Since no one
wanted his or her name to be on the follow-up list after the specified com-
pletion date, a great deal of effort was expended to ensure that action items
were worked off quickly.
The only other information covered at every meeting was safety. Safety
representatives were encouraged to give feedback and recommendations, and
it was made clear to everyone that safety was not negotiable and that safety-
related threats must be resolved on-site as soon as they were identified.
The project team spent a minimum of fourteen hours per day on-site.
Talking to the workforce was an excellent way to pass on and receive informa-
tion. As the level of familiarity increased, the quantity of information flow in-
creased proportionally, confirming the maxim that the simplest solutions are
the best.

The November 1993 issue of Chemical Processing contained an article enti-

tled "'Fast Track' Approach Replaces Tower in Record Time." The column in
question was 6 feet (1.83m) in diameter and 140 feet (42.6 m) high. This
compares to our column, which was 5.8 m (19 feet) in diameter and 70 m
(231 feet) high. Their work was completed in ten weeks, a new record, ac-
cording to the article. Our work was completed in only twenty-five days!
This was the only other project of its kind that we could find to use as a
benchmark; but it gives a good indication of what was achieved.
The project is over, but it lives on in the form of accumulated knowl-
edge and lessons learned to be used on all future projects.
Planning

1. A work breakdown structure was used in the project management of the pro-
ject described in this case. According to the PMBOK Guide,what is the con-
cept of the work breakdown structure?
2. The work breakdown structure is described as a key for the scope management
of the project. Describe the process used in this project to develop the WBS.
3. The author of this case presents communications management as "the gold-
en thread which ran through the project." If the supplier relationships were
less trustful, how would this have changed the management and success of
the project?
4. This project challenged the way in which things are usually done, and based
its success on what were considered special management methods. Mention
a couple of the examples from the project which you think reflect these "spe-
cial" practices.
5. How did the project build commitment from every member of the team? List
several reasons for this commitment.